2018's Best "WordPress Hosting" Reviews

In our experience, some web hosts are great at hosting WordPress sites, and some are simply not. Our team signed up for and tested every major hosting service to determine which was best for hosting WordPress —... (read more)

In our experience, some web hosts are great at hosting WordPress sites, and some are simply not. Our team signed up for and tested every major hosting service to determine which was best for hosting WordPress — analyzing everything from installation, WP-specific tools, pricing, reliability, and a ton of other factors. Below are the top hosts that earned our trust:

WORDPRESSRATING

InMotion: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 7 minutes

PJ Fancher (HostingAdvice.com):
InMotion, long known for their shared hosting options, entered the WordPress space with a solid option built upon their reputation for great support and reliability. Costing a small premium over other budget-minded options, they do include some nice features... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

Bluehost: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 5 minutes

Ryan Frankel (HostingAdvice.com):
Aimed at personal bloggers and first-time users, Bluehost’s WordPress hosting packages are a great alternative to simple shared hosting. These service come at a premium, compared to Bluehost’s standard shared plans, but the WordPress optimization and... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

A2 Hosting: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 4 minutes

Alexandra Leslie (HostingAdvice.com):
If shared web hosting is what you need, A2 Hosting is the perfect host to help launch your site with your choice of CMS, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and others. As part of A2's promise to emphasize performance, they've concocted several A2-optimized... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

SiteGround: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 6 minutes

Alexandra Leslie (HostingAdvice.com):
Want a hassle-free, WordPress-compatible hosting service? SiteGround has thought of everything you need to get your site up and running. Starting with the essentials, users get free email accounts, site transfer, Cloudflare CDN, and cPanel license. Then they... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

HostGator: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 4 minutes

Ryan Frankel (HostingAdvice.com):
HostGator is great for all things shared hosting, and application-specific services — such as the classic one-click-install WordPress hosting — are no exception. The team recently updated its already clean and intuitive cPanel dashboard, wherein users can... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

iPage: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 7 minutes

PJ Fancher (HostingAdvice.com):
For those looking for an affordable and simple-to-navigate host for their WordPress site, definitely consider iPage. Their budget offering gives you a nice list of extras and they provide a great alternative to shared hosting.While not as robust and fast as... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

HostPapa: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 4 minutes

Laura Bernheim (HostingAdvice.com):
Nearly all hosts these days include easy installations and support for WordPress, the world's leading content management system. While HostPapa is no different, we discovered their ultra-attentive support team can help new users navigate the sometimes... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

WP Engine: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 6 minutes

Ryan Frankel (HostingAdvice.com):
Do you care enough about your WordPress site — its security, scalability, load time, and uptime — to spend around $20, or more, per month on it? If you answered "yes," then WP Engine is a fine choice! You've come to the right place.While WP Engine's... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

Hostinger: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 4 minutes

Laura Bernheim (HostingAdvice.com):
As much as we love WordPress, one of our biggest pet peeves is when hosting providers exploit the popularity of the world's most-used content management system by offering so-called WordPress hosting that, in reality, is exactly the same as the host's shared... Go to full review »

WORDPRESSRATING

Liquid Web: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 5 minutes

Alexandra Leslie (HostingAdvice.com):
The latest addition to the Liquid Web hosting lineup is their Managed WordPress Hosting solution. This WordPress product was built based on the VPS infrastructure and is backed by the Heroic Support® that Liquid Web customers already love. The fully managed... Go to full review »

Review Breakdown: WordPress Hosts

Looking for the best web hosting for WordPress? Our experts put together a summary table to help you navigate WP hosting reviews with confidence. Whether you need the best server for WordPress, the host with WP-optimized plugins and caching features, or the fastest WordPress hosting for the lowest cost, you'll find it below.

Looking for something other than wordpress hosting?

If pricing is a primary concern for your hosting needs, we've got you covered. Check out our reviews of the cheapest web hosts, complete with pricing and analysis for their current hosting plans. see all reviews »

Looking for a dedicated server to host your website? Choosing the right host can make all the difference. See what our team discovered when comparing the various dedicated hosting options. see all reviews »

While not a good solution for beginners, virtual private servers offer ideal computing resources and scalability for those who are comfortable managing advanced settings. Check out our reviews of the top VPS options. see all reviews »

Want your own website but don't know where to start? These services enable you to build your own site, without any coding or programming knowledge required. Be on the web in no time — and at a super-low price! see all reviews »

6 Considerations When Comparing the Top WordPress Hosting Sites

New to WordPress hosting? We've got you covered with our experts' breakdown of the WP hosting world.

By: Alexandra Leslie, Tech Expert

When a family friend of mine launched her own practice and decided she needed a website, she actually hired a “Virtual Assistant” to help her manage creating a simple WordPress site. Our friend was — and is — a highly intelligent, competent woman with a master’s, and she knows her way around computers. Yet getting a blog launched seemed infeasible to her.

All she needed was a host, a theme, and some content — so this story opened my eyes to just how little the average potential site owner knows about WordPress or hosting in general. Here, I’ll cover everything we look at when evaluating the top hosts, and what features you should zero in on when reading reviews in quest of the best web hosting for WordPress.

1. First, What Is WordPress Hosting?

WordPress hosting just refers to the hosting for a site whose content is managed via WordPress. If you sign up with a web host, log into your hosting control panel, and install WordPress to start adding content to your new site — voila! You have WordPress website hosting.

Self-Hosted WordPress vs. WordPress.com

It’s important to note that there are two subgenres of WP hosting: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The latter is a free, fully-hosted site that allows you to build a very, very basic website, as you would with a brand like Wix or Squarespace. This is not the ideal option for folks who are looking to run a business site or aspire to grow a substantial web presence. If you’re doing anything more than posting your resume or blogging your ideas for shagrins, you want WordPress.org hosting.

WordPress.org references the open-source (free) software that can be downloaded and installed pretty easily, particularly if you have a web host that makes this process a breeze. Self-hosted WordPress allows you to capitalize on the robust offerings of the established content management system, plus the potential for more features (e.g., free domain, unlimited email accounts, marketing credits, expert support) with an established web hosting provider. Self-hosted WordPress is the way to go, folks.

What Makes a Good “WordPress Host”

To be clear, any host could be a “WordPress host,” because, as I mentioned, WordPress hosting is just hosting a site running WordPress — and any provider can do that. That’s not to say that all WordPress hosts are created equal. Some do it better than others… way better.

The best WordPress hosting plans include 1-click WordPress installs (or have the software pre-installed for you), tools for optimizing speed and performance, and a team of experts well-versed in the platform and its maintenance requirements on hand to assist you. Ideally, the teams that tout WordPress-specific packages should make migrating or transferring from another provider painless as well. If you snag an awesome managed hosting deal, said experts might even handle updates to the WordPress Core and/or plugins.

All in all, we deem hosts worthy of recognition based on feedback from end-users, our team, and the WordPress community. BlueHost WordPress hosting plans have been endorsed by WordPress itself!

2. The Best WordPress Hosting By Server Type

The WordPress usership demographic varies wildly from first-time site owner to enterprise-grade business owner. The former end of the spectrum will probably opt for shared WordPress hosting, while the enterprise folks may need dedicated resources to support their corporation’s WordPress site.

Here we compare factors that make for the best hosting for shared, virtual, and dedicated servers using WordPress. There’s really no such thing as a WordPress server, but you can sign up for hosting where you get hardware that can be optimized for the WordPress software. Make sense? I’ll go on…

Shared WordPress Hosting

The vast majority of WordPress users fall into the shared hosting bucket. Shared hosting just means that you are sharing space on a server with other customers. Naturally, this saves you tremendous mulah rather than having to eat the cost of a server that’s all yours with resources you may not need just yet. If your host is on their game, you shouldn’t even know your shared server neighbors exist. InMotion, SiteGround, and Bluehost WordPress hosting are among the most popular offerings for this market.

Shared server WordPress hosts usually offer unlimited email, domains, storage, and site traffic, along with a free domain name registration and often times a boat-load of search engine advertising credits. Of course, 1-click installation for WordPress is a must.

WordPress VPS Hosting

Once your WordPress site has outgrown the shared hosting environment, VPS hosting may be the route to take. A VPS, or virtual private server, gains you access to all the resources of the Cloud, with the ability to scale up and down as needed — only paying for what you need, when you need it.

Dedicated WordPress Hosting

For folks in need of high-powered hardware with resources solely dedicated to keeping your popular site up and running quickly and smoothly, dedicated hosting for WordPress is your solution. Dedicated customers get tons of RAM, storage, and CPU, and typically a higher echelon of technical support to meet the needs of maintaining their highly-trafficked site.

Ideally, your dedicated WordPress server will be configured with multi-layer caching and SSDs for added speed, with premium service providers managing the updates to the core and keeping your plugins optimized for you. For all things dedicated hosting — WordPress and beyond — InMotion hosting is king.

3. Getting the WordPress Software

The key component to getting WordPress hosting is the software. This can be found, downloaded, and installed at WordPress.org, but if you find the right hosting provider, they’ll streamline this process for you in one of two ways: 1-click installs or pre-installation.

Blog Hosts Often Offer 1-Click WordPress Installations

If you poke around the reviews on our site, you’ll quickly find that the top hosts out there offer what are known as 1-click installs. This just means that they allow you to download and install popular apps with the click of a button found in your control panel (e.g., cPanel or Plesk).

For example, iPage comes with the web’s #1 control panel, cPanel, included on all shared hosting plans. Customers can log into their cPanel dashboard and choose from one of hundreds of apps and scripts, including content management systems (CMSs) like Drupal, Joomla, and the CMS of the hour: WordPress.

Users looking to start an eCommerce site may opt for 1-click installation of PrestaShop or Magento, but you can also use WordPress for your content, install shopping carts, and integrate PayPal to collect your profits. The best hosts make this easily doable for even the most novice of customers.

The Best WP Hosts Have WordPress Pre-Installed

What could be better than installation with a single click? Providers like InMotion Hosting pre-install WordPress at checkout, so you’re ready to get rolling with your new WordPress site instantly.

4. WordPress Web Hosting Features

As you’re reading over the reviews on this page, you’ll notice some recurring features are offered by the top providers. In the next section, we’ll go through the key facets of an offering we look for when weeding out the average from the very best hosts on the market.

Our #1 WordPress hosting review reveals that the best host for WordPress includes the software pre-installed, a free domain name, your choice of datacenter locations for your server(s), and the ability to host an unlimited number of WordPress sites on a single account. Transferring your site to InMotion Hosting is done for you, for free, and their team will regularly back up your data as well.

Domain Hosting

Ideally, we like to see the inclusion of a free domain name in hosts’ packages, particularly for those strictly looking for domain hosting. Many of the top providers of WordPress domain hosting will allow you to host an unlimited number of domains, and they often chip in on the registration cost of one domain for at least the first year of service.

Blog Hosting

It’s no secret that WordPress is one of the most well-known blogging platforms on the web. A huge chunk of WordPress hosting shoppers are interested in blogging features. Users love it for how easy it is to just start writing, how many theme options are available to match your blog’s personality, as well as the huge community behind the platform.

Email Accounts

Once you have your domain, chances are you’ll want email addresses at that domain. Many of our WordPress email hosting providers will allow you to create an unlimited number of email accounts, so you can have branded communication within and outside of your team.

For example, Lillian’s Edits To-Go online résumé editing service can have lillian@editstogo.com, info@editstogo.com, and editorial@editstogo.com, among others. These email accounts can be set up via your control panel, with options to access webmail via leading business mail apps, such as MailChimp, SquirrelMail, or RoundCube.

Storage and Bandwidth

Another recurring theme in our reviews is talk of “unlimited” everything — domains, storage, email, bandwidth, et cetera. The truth is that when a host boasts unlimited storage or site traffic, they really mean they’ll allow you to use as much as you want — to a point. Yes, there are limits to “unlimited,” but chances are you’ll never get anywhere near that ceiling. Furthermore, the most reliable web hosts will give you a heads up when you’re approaching the maximum and start talking to you about your options for scaling.

Secure WordPress Hosting

Whether you’re building a personal site to share your mad poetry skills or launching an online business, security for your WordPress site should be of utmost importance to you. There are all sorts of ways a host can help you in securing your website in general: keeping software up to date, round-the-clock security monitoring, DDoS protection, free SSL certificates, et cetera.

To maintain secure WordPress hosting, it’s important to keep your WP software version up to date, install and update plugins with caution, and use some form of site encryption service. Some hosts will include basic SSL certificates in certain plans, or you can sign up for the level of security you’d like with services like Symantec or The SSL Store.

Fast WordPress Hosting

If you’re looking for the fastest WordPress hosting option, you don’t have to scan very far down this page. InMotion includes free solid-state disks (SSDs) for up to 20 times greater page loading speed. SiteGround and BlueHost include a free CDN (content delivery network), which allows your site’s content to be sent to a site visitor’s computer from a server that’s geographically closest to that user. This shortens the time it takes for a page to load, dramatically enhancing the user experience. For eCommerce sites in particular, a better user experience means you run less risk of losing customers (and thus, revenue!).

5. What Is “Managed” WordPress Hosting?

The phrase “managed hosting” gets tossed around in the web hosting world quite a bit, and then there are the distinctions between fully-managed, self-managed, and semi-managed hosting. The definitions of and parameters associated with all of these phrases can vary widely from provider to provider.

Simply put, self-managed hosting is essentially just hosting. You’re responsible for managing your server. On the flip side, fully-managed hosting providers may take care of everything except your code and your content. Somewhere in the middle, semi-managed services involve your web host helping you out with some — but not all — that goes into monitoring your server infrastructure.

If you’re looking for WordPress managed hosting, you’ll need to hone in on what is included in a prospective host’s managed services. Keep in mind that shared hosting is essentially managed by default, as hosts are not going to expect beginners to handle security patches, bug fixes, and server monitoring.

Managed services may cost you a bit of a premium, but the best managed WordPress hosting providers are worth every penny. You won’t realize how much you want that extra level of support until something goes wrong. If your site going down due to expected or unexpected reasons would be detrimental, and if you don’t have the technical expertise to get things back on track, I’d highly recommend looking into managed hosting. Consider it an investment in peace of mind.

6. WordPress Hosting Reviews By Cost

We’ve covered the features, the potential needs and use cases, and what makes a WordPress host stand out in our expert eyes — but how much does WordPress hosting cost? After comparing the plans on this list, you’ll see pricing ranges from a couple bucks to upwards of $25 a month.

Cheap WordPress Hosting

$2 to $5 a month — need I say more? The WordPress hosting plans listed above are proof that quality, affordable WordPress hosting exists. All you have to do is figure out which features are your must-haves for the few dollars you’re spending monthly.

Free WordPress Hosting

Are any WordPress hosting providers free? Sure, if you’re determined enough, you can find a free option for just about any product or service in the world. The problem tends to be: You get what you pay for — and a truer statement couldn’t be made for WordPress hosting.

In an earlier section of this guide, we mentioned WordPress.com hosting. This is the free option. Unfortunately, it’s grossly lacking in customization options, eCommerce features, marketing tools, and support you can get when partnering with a web host that offers self-hosted WordPress plans. It can’t be said enough: If you’re serious about building a website that you want humans to visit and enjoy, you’ve got to find the $2 or $3 a month somewhere.

Got It? Sign Up With The Best Hosting For WordPress

Hopefully, if you or a friend are considering creating a WordPress website, it doesn’t seem like such a daunting task anymore. Remember: With the right host, it can be as simple as a $2-signup, 1-click installation, and a few minutes of customizing your choice of theme and adding some content before pressing “Publish.” Now you know what we were thinking when we declared the best WordPress host on the market — so, who’s the best WP host for you?

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